Comedian Richard Pryor dies at 65

[ViRaL1]

It's a sad day in the world of comedy...

Updated: 5:12 p.m. ET Dec. 10, 2005
LOS ANGELES - Richard Pryor, the caustic yet perceptive actor-comedian who lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off, died Saturday. He was 65.

Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. of a heart attack after being taken to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

“He did not suffer, he went quickly and at the end there was a smile on his face,” his wife, Jennifer Pryor, said. “I’m honored now that I have an opportunity to protect and continue his legacy because he’s a very, very, very amazing man and he opened doors to so many people.”

Pryor’s audacious style influenced an array of stand-up artists, including Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and Damon Wayans, as well as Robin Williams, David Letterman and others.

He was regarded early in his career as one of the most foul-mouthed comics in the business, but he gained a wide following for his expletive-filled but universal and frequently personal insights into modern life and race relations.

A series of hit comedies in the ’70s and ’80s, as well as filmed versions of his concert performances, turned him into one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. He was also one of the first black performers to have enough leverage to cut his own Hollywood deals. In 1983, he signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Columbia Pictures.

His films included “Stir Crazy,” “Silver Streak,” “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling,” and “Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip.”

Humor examined racism
Throughout his career, Pryor focused on racial inequality, once joking as the host of the 1977 Academy Awards that Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier were the only black members of the Academy.

Pryor once marveled “that I live in racist America and I’m uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can’t do much better than that.”

In 1980, he nearly lost his life when he suffered severe burns over 50 percent of his body while freebasing cocaine at his home. An admitted “junkie” at the time, Pryor spent six weeks recovering from the burns and much longer from drug and alcohol dependence.

He battled multiple sclerosis throughout the ’90s.

In his last movie, the 1991 bomb “Another You,” Pryor’s poor health was clearly evident. Pryor made a comeback attempt the following year, returning to standup comedy in clubs and on television while looking thin and frail, and with noticeable speech and movement difficulties.

In 1995, he played an embittered multiple sclerosis patient in an episode of the television series “Chicago Hope.” The role earned him an Emmy nomination as best guest actor in a drama series.

“To be diagnosed was the hardest thing because I didn’t know what they were talking about,” he said. “And the doctor said ‘Don’t worry, in three months you’ll know.’

“So I went about my business and then, one day, it jumped me. I couldn’t get up. ... Your muscles trick you; they did me.”

A trailblazer
While Pryor’s material sounds modest when compared with some of today’s raunchier comedians, it was startling material when first introduced. He never apologized for it.

Pryor was fired by one hotel in Las Vegas for “obscenities” directed at the audience. In 1970, tired of compromising his act, he quit in the middle of another Vegas stage show with the words, “What the (blank) am I doing here?” The audience was left staring at an empty stage.

He didn’t tone things down after he became famous. In his 1977 NBC television series “The Richard Pryor Show,” he threatened to cancel his contract with the network. NBC’s censors objected to a skit in which Pryor appeared naked save for a flesh-colored loincloth to suggest he was emasculated.

In his later years, Pryor mellowed considerably, and his film roles looked more like easy paychecks than artistic endeavors. His robust work gave way to torpid efforts like “Harlem Nights,” “Brewster’s Millions” and “Hear No Evil, See No Evil.”

“I didn’t think ‘Brewster’s Millions’ was good to begin with,” Pryor once said. “I’m sorry, but they offered us the money. I was a pig, I got greedy.”

“I had some great things and I had some bad things. The best and the worst,” he said in 1995. “In other words, I had a life.”

Recognition came in 1998 from an unlikely source: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington gave Pryor the first Mark Twain Prize for humor. He said in a statement that he was proud that, “like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to lessen people’s hatred.”

He will be missed

[adam]

Sad but not unexpected. He was on his last leg for years. But Brewster's Millions being a bad movie? I love that movie. Pryor was hilarious in it.

[canadateck]

See No Evil, Hear No Evil

That was Funny.

[rallynavvie]

One of the funniest people who ever lived.

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

I will always remember him in his prime. He made me laugh many times. God speed on your journey good man!.

P.S. Monty's Millions was HILARIOUS!

[Noahtuck]

Sad but not unexpected. He was on his last leg for years. But Brewster's Millions being a bad movie? I love that movie. Pryor was hilarious in it.

Yep.... i was amazed he made it this long... and i also thought Brewster's Millions was damn funny!!!! also, Harlem Nights is one of my all time fav's!!!!
had my fav of all time (not to mention a ton of killer black comedians in it) who blew away pryor in "dirtyness" years before pryor, Redd Foxx!!!!!! i have an album of his that was KILLER dirty!!! and yes, i mean ALBUM, wish i could find it on cd... from like 30+ years ago.

Although pryor was someone who i grew up with, watching and seeing him in his prime when i was young and not supposed to watch or listen to such stuff, but i snuck and still did
He was definately a pioneer for the fact he brought more out into the view of people...... i remember this one thing when he talked about the little monkey jumping up on his shoulder and.... welll.... doing his ear
He was definately above anyone nowadays or since his time... blows away eddie murphy!!!!!!!!!!!

[ZAPPER]

When I was a kid I checked out a Redd Foxx album from the public librairy (SP). I took it home expecting to hear some of the Sanford and Son type stuff. Boy! where my parents suprised! I couldn't even understand all of it and had to have my brothers and other freinds explain some of it to me. Talk about RAW. It just goes to show that some things have to be remembered in their time context. When Richard Pryor lit himself up I didn't even know what freebasing was.

I would say that by todays standards Pryors flicks are cute at best, but go back in time and his flicks, HBO specials and stand up videos where cutting edge hardcore funny!

The great ones keep slipping away, it only adds to my depression. But this adds to the importance of video preservation.

[SquirrelDip]

He was a master - he will be missed.

[mbellot]

I would say that by todays standards Pryors flicks are cute at best, but go back in time and his flicks, HBO specials and stand up videos where cutting edge hardcore funny!

Cuting edge indeed. Richard Pryor was the first SNL guest host to have the live tape delay.

He reportedly told NBC execs that he couldn't control what comes out of his mouth (with regards to profanity).

But then who can?